Identity: Be Imitators of Christ

Matt Redstone

OneChurch

Identity • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago • Presented 3 years ago • 30:46

Ephesians 5:1–2

Hebrews 3:1–6

Philippians 3:12–4:1

1 Corinthians 4:14–17

3 John 11

1 Corinthians 10:31–11:1

Hebrews 13:7–9

2 Thessalonians 3:6–7

1 Thessalonians 1:2–6

Jesus

Moses

Imitation of Christ

Identifying With Christ

An Imitator

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To wrap up our series, Identity, we switch gears and look to the one who was greater then Moses. What can we learn about ourselves and life as we observe the life of Jesus.

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Intro:

We are wrapping up our series, Identity: Who am I Really? We started by talking about the things that we so often tie our identity, and how they all fall short. Especially in this time of pandemic and we have been stripped of many of our identifiers, we needed a better foundation

In light of that, we looked at the early part of the Moses’s life. Moses went from having everything at his disposal to having nothing, and this is where God met him in the desert. He was lost, confused, and searching for purpose, and found all those things in the God who met him in the burning bush.

We started the series by laying the foundation of our identity in who God is. With so many things changing so fast in this world, something as our identity needs to be founded on something unmovable, unshakable, and unchanging. The only thing in all of creation that meets that criteria is God alone. As we discover more of who God is, we begin to take on the things he cares about and who God is becomes who we are.

Then we moved into Moses’s insecurities. He thought he had some legitimate reasons for not going along with God’s plan, and each time God had an answer. We came to the conclusion that not only is our identity founded in who God is, but what God says about us. If God has called us to something, he will give us everything we need to accomplish it. He will give us gifts, he will give us vision, and he will even bring people into our life to help us accomplish the calling.

Last week, we looked at how God uses opposition and trials to solidify our identity. We saw opposition from the place we expected it, Pharaoh, and we saw opposition from somewhere we didn’t expect it, the people of Israel. We looked at how God uses opposition to draw us back to Him, our source of strength of direction, but also to build up our character and our faith. It is through testing that we grab onto our character and our new identity more firmly.

Question 1: What is one of your takeaways from this series? Why did that point stick out to you?

This morning, as we close out the series, I want to shift gears a little bit. All along the way, I’ve mentioned the fact that Jesus is greater then Moses. This is what Scripture says:

Hebrews 3:1–6 CSB

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. Now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household. And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.

Here is why this is significant: It’s great to look at the story of Moses and see how he struggled the same way we did and learn from what Moses went through. But how do we make what we learned actionable? How do we take this idea that our identity is founded in God and apply it to everyday life?

Question 2: Who is someone you try to imitate in life? Why?

Well, lets look at the way children learn from parents. Lets look at the way coaches teach their team. Watch me do it, then you do it. The easiest way to teach anyone anything is imitation, and if we have our option who to imitate, we should imitate Christ. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God, so imitating Jesus is the same as imitating God. Throughout the Old Testament prophets, we read how they long to learn the ways of God and be in his presence. For us, we actually have a recorded history of how Jesus acted when he walked to earth, and Jesus often said that he only did and said what he saw his heavenly father does in heaven. Jesus imitated God.

This idea of imitating Jesus was huge for Paul. In fact, we see him communicating its importance to almost every church he had planted or written to.

Ephesians 5:1–2 CSB

Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

1 Corinthians 10:31–11:1 CSB

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved. Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

1 Thessalonians 1:2–6 CSB

We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers. We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you for your benefit, and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

the apostle John says it this way:

3 John 11 CSB

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

imitation is not only the highest form of flattery, but also the easiest way to learn, to embody, and identify with something or someone you look up to. If our identity is grounded in God, our life should begin to look like an imitation of God, and more directly, an imitation of Christ’s life.

In fact, the word Christian literally means, Christ ones.

Not only did Paul encourage the churches to imitate Christ, but there was also someone else he was encouraging them to imitate. Did you catch it in a couple of those verses I read to you?

Paul not only encouraged them to imitate Christ, but also to imitate him.

1 Corinthians 4:14–17 CSB

I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children. For you may have countless instructors in Christ, but you don’t have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Philippians 3:12–4:1 CSB

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

2 Thessalonians 3:6–7 CSB

Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister who is idle and does not live according to the tradition received from us. For you yourselves know how you should imitate us: We were not idle among you;

the author of Hebrews also says this. Paul may have written Hebrews, we’re not sure

Hebrews 13:7–9 CSB

Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.

In all of his teachings, Paul would use his life as the living example of everything he was encouraging others to do. He acknowledged he wasn’t perfect and had no means arrived or achieved perfection, but his striving and his pursuit of being better was something he wanted for his churches and his followers. He was a walking, breathing example for the churches, the way Jesus was a walking, breathing example for the disciples at the time.

This is why Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees and religious leaders at the time of his ministry. He frequently pointed out that they had these grand teachings but were unwilling to live out the teaching themselves. Paul calls out the teachers in Romans

Romans 2:21–23 CSB

you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal? You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

The apostle James says that not many people should claim to be teachers, because there is a special judgment for teachers.

there’s two reasons I point out these verses

A) These are hard words for me

Everytime I read through Paul, I always hit one of these verses and instantly feel the pressure cooker get cranked up. Don’t get me wrong, I have days where I want to bust out social media, turn on the selfie camera, and shine that spotlight.

Church, I had a great time of prayer and devotions this morning. I talked to 3 people about Jesus and received this word for you today.

I have those days where I want you to see how good I’m doing and want you to imitate those moments in my life

But I am also very aware of the days that are not so good, not so imitable. I am aware of the days when I’m glad my life isn’t the Truman show and you get to see everything that goes. But these words are the undeniable reminder that everything I teach and encourage in your better be living and active in my own life. I talk about calling, I better be an example of what a called life looks like. I talk about prayer, I better be talking from experience and not from theory.

Paul talks about how the message of the gospel needs to be founded in a display of power. That display of power might be healings, prophecy, or some other supernatural sign from God. But that display of God’s power is also the evidence of those truths at work in the lives of those doing the teaching. Is what I’m teaching you at work in my own life?

which brings me to my second point

B) Our life should be something to be imitated

If you’re new to faith, or early on in this journey of discovering your identity in Christ, then you get a pass for now. You have the luxury of time to grow in faith and life.

But for those of us who have been followers of Jesus for a while, is your faith, is your identity in Christ something you can confidently say you want others to imitate. Because when we get to eternity, and we stand before Jesus, we don’t get judged on how many times we read the bible, but how we lived it.

As we grow in our ability to live out scripture and apply it to our everyday life, our life becomes the evidence that the word is living and active because it is living and active in you. As it molds you, your life becomes something that others can imitate.

This is the reason that we struggle with making disciples. We approach disciple making as this theoretical adventure where we need to know enough scripture and have enough answers to grow this person in their faith. That’s not disciple making, and that’s not how Jesus did it. Jesus did life with his disciples, and they learned by watching and imitating him. You make disciples by sharing your life with others and having them imitate you.

Question 3: Do you want your life to be imitated by someone? Why or why not?

Our identity is founded on who God is, but it is lived out by doing what Jesus did, and living the way Jesus lived. As we grow in our faith and the confidence of our identity in Christ, our life becomes something we want others to experience. It doesn’t mean we get it right all the time, but it means we never give up trying, never stop striving, never stop growing.